Monday, January 4, 2010

FIRST FITTING

I don't really understand how you can do a fitting on anything when you have an extra 10" of bulk from large seam allowances to contend with but despite that handicap I was pleased with the first fitting. I wanted this jacket to have more ease and since it was comfortable at this point I thought it would be fine once the excess seam allowances were trimmed. At this point I had quilted the lining to the fabric and machine basted all the seams. After the fitting I stitched the seams of the jacket body, trimmed the excess seam allowances and prepared the lining at the seams for fell stitching. Thankfully, I had not yet done the fell stitching, only basted the lining in place because when I put the jacket on again and it was too tight! Although I had heavily steamed the fabric before cutting there was still shrinkage from pressing the seams. Next time the fabric goes to the cleaners for professional pretreating! There was only one option and that was to rip out the center back seam and the side seams and try to gain about an inch through the jacket body. Ripping out 3 seams in this fabric took an entire afternoon. The fit is now acceptable but not what I really wanted. Before I cut the sleeves you can be sure the fabric will be steamed, steamed again and steamed some more. I am bad about holding a grudge, so for now the jacket is pushed aside waiting for the day that I can look at it again without being angry and enjoy the process.

7 comments:

"I am bad about holding a grudge"--been there many times. I just pushed 4 cardigans to the back of my sewing closet because I'm angry with my 1-step buttonhole function on my machine. Most likely operator error but I'm going to blame it on my Singer anyway.